Betsy Manifold is a managing partner of Wolf Haldenstein’s San Diego office. Ms. Manifold practices in complex class actions representing clients including institutional investors such as public and labor pension funds, labor health and welfare benefit funds, and private institutional investors who suffered losses due to corporate fraud. She has extensive experience in antitrust law and has been at the forefront of several notable federal class action antitrust actions on behalf of consumers. In 2020, Ms. Manifold spoke at the Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law Symposium on the impact of antitrust law on the fair treatment of student athletes under state and federal employment law. Ms. Manifold also has over twenty years’ experience in wage and hour law and has favorably litigated noteworthy class actions on behalf of workers.

She is a member of the Firm’s litigation team that recovered over $7 billion for investors and over one hundred million for workers. Ms. Manifold is a member of the Investor Protection, Consumer Protection and Labor and Business Practice litigation groups with an emphasis on unfair and deceptive practices law, wage and hour law, securities law, derivative law, brokerage disputes law, and arbitration representing broker dealers. Ms. Manifold has participated on panels involving diverse legal issues including a 2019 ABA Litigation Section panel at the ABA National Conference on women and the law.

Ms. Manifold joined the firm in 1988 as an associate and became partner in 2000.

Representations

• Ms. Manifold currently represents clients in a wide array of matters, including:
  • Lead and Class Counsel on behalf of Indirect purchasers in an antitrust class action for price fixing and collusion in the canned seafood industry, currently pending in the Southern District of California;
  • College football players in a federal class action wage and hour case against the NCAA and PAC 12 alleging that the defendants failed to pay minimum wages to the plaintiff and all other PAC-12 football players in violation of California and federal laws; and
  • Financial advisors in a wage and hour class action alleging inter alia, that the defendants failed to properly reimburse business expenses, provide itemized wage statements and in violation of New York labor laws, currently pending in the Southern District of New York.
• Ms. Manifold has successfully litigated and negotiated numerous multi-million dollar settlements, serving as lead or co-lead counsel.  For example:
  • In re Hot Topic Sec. Litig., No. 2:13-cv-04153 (C.D. Cal. 2016) (corporate governance action with settlement of $14.9 million);
  • In re Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. Stockholder Litig., 1-15-CV-278812 (Sup. Ct. Santa Clara, CA 2015) (injunction requiring corrective disclosures);
  • In re Atmel Corp. Deriv. Litig., No. 06-4592 (N.D. Cal. 2010) (stock backdating action with settlement of $9.65 million);
  • Lead Counsel on a case of first impression that successfully classified truck drivers, who were formerly classified as independent contractors, as employees under the California Labor Code. The case against Lowe’s Home Centers was settled in 2008 on the eve of trial giving each driver an average recovery of over $5,500 with some getting as much as $60,000; and
  • Good Morning to You Productions Corp. v. Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, No. CV 13- 04460-GHK (MRWx) (C.D. Cal.), in which plaintiffs prevailed on summary judgment in the first federal class action over a disputed copyright related to the world’s most famous song, “Happy Birthday To You.”

Affiliations

Professional
Ms Manifold is a member of the various institutional investor trade organizations such as the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, the Council of Institutional Investors, the National Conference on Public Employees’ Retirement Systems and the California Association of Public Employees’ Retirement Systems. She is also a member the American Business Women’s Association.